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The Azolla Event: when is a fern not a fern?

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Betelgeuse, Gamow, and a Big Red Horse

There has been a lot of talk recently of Betelgeuse possibly going supernova this century or not...

Climate Change, the Walrus and the Carpenter

I have recently watched two videos on climate change by Sabine Hossenfelder.  The first one...

A Very Large Hadron Collider?

Frontpage image: Illustration of spherical explosion (kilonova) of two neutron stars (AT2017gfo/GW170817)...

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Robert H OlleyRSS Feed of this column.

Until recently, I worked in the Polymer Physics Group of the Physics Department at the University of Reading.

I would describe myself as a Polymer Morphologist. I am not an astronaut,

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Between Brexit (not or not yet?) and Mothers’ Day

Between Brexit (not or not yet?) and Mothers’ Day

Mar 30 2019 | comment(s)

Today we are between what was supposed the be the day Britain left the EU, and Mothering Sunday, more popularly known as Mothers’ Day.

How how to link those two? Well, until recently I used to be a regular at a coffee shop which was also visited by adults with learning difficulties accompanied by their carers, most of whom were African ladies. From which a thought arose in my mind.
Loaded questions?

Loaded questions?

Mar 16 2019 | comment(s)

Two days ago I came across this article in Science Codex.

Extremist sympathies more likely in white British and UK-born people


which took me to the paper itself:

Extremism and common mental illness: cross-sectional community survey of White British and Pakistani men and women living in England | The British Journal of Psychiatry

Christmas Cheer 2018

Christmas Cheer 2018

Dec 25 2018 | comment(s)

Today is Christmas, and about this time folks in the New World may be thinking about breakfast. So to greet everyone reading this, here is a Russian Christmas card from before 1917, featuring Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) and his granddaughter Snegurochka (the Snow Maiden):



On TV at this time of year, we see a lot of reindeer, and we learn that during the winter it is mostly the females that keep their antlers.

Why do female reindeer grow antlers? - Discover Wildlife

Biological Xenophobia?

Biological Xenophobia?

May 11 2018 | comment(s)

Emperor Meiji (明治天皇, the 122nd Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, who reigned 1867 to 1912), presided over a time of rapid change in the Empire of Japan, as the nation quickly changed from an isolationist feudal state to a capitalist and imperial world power, characterized by the Japanese industrial revolution.
 

恭賀新禧 And The Moon

恭賀新禧 And The Moon

Feb 16 2018 | comment(s)

To observers in much of North America and East Asia, on January 31st, the second full moon of the month, passed through Earth’s shadow in a Super Blue Blood Moon.

De Haut En Bas

De Haut En Bas

Oct 19 2017 | comment(s)

Recently, in the New Statesman, under the headline David Attenborough: Brexiteers “probably don’t understand” facts, we read: